Please excuse my desire to vent, but I know very few people IRL on this prep school journey. My DD was rejected by St. Ann’s in Brooklyn last week. I know they only take 10-15 each year for the 9th grade, but we were disappointed nevertheless. Our public HS and local BS are not a great fit so we want to relocate so our DD can attend a more rigorous school as a day student (my husband and I work from home). Given the upheaval, we only applied to what we considered to be “the best of the best” to ensure the whole effort was worthwhile. St. Ann’s was the only NYC school she/we thought fit the bill; the others are Choate, Milton, Andover, and Concord.
Anyway, with one rejection in hand (not even wait listed!!), now I’m nervous. Looking for encouraging words. For context, she was a finalist for the Caroline D. Bradley scholarship; she won a top award at a countywide science fair; she’s won several writing awards through Scholastic including a Gold Key and is actively involved in writing workshops after school and in the summer; she is a member of CTY’s SET group for scoring over 700 on the SAT while in 7th grade; her total score on the SSAT was 99%tile among girls, 98%tile overall; her report card is nearly perfect; given teacher feedback I’m assuming her rec letters were great; she’s been a Girl Scout for 7 years and in theater for 8; she plays a sport, an instrument, and takes two languages. She even prepped for her interviews with an Andover alum who said she was a great interviewee. What kind of kid, for Heaven’s sake, were they looking for?!?! Yes, we applied for partial FA, but partial! I just don’t think that’s it, but I have no idea.
Anyway, this whole process just makes me feel it’s impossible to be objective about your own kid. I know you should “love the school that loves you,” but none the less rejection is hard. I’m just afraid now we were too confident and waiting for 3/10 is excruciating. Thanks for listening.
I could be confusing St. Anne’s with another school but if memory serves, it has very very different school that Choate, Milton, Andover and Concord. Isn’t St Annes an artsy school that doesn’t believe in grades?
Why not let your child board? Applying as a day student to schools you don’t live near sends a odd message to admissions.
Your daughter sounds like a amazing kid but there doesn’t seem to be a real “hook.” I am very familiar with St Anns and it is highly political too. St Anns is probably harder than Andover simply due to the numbers. FA does not help.
She definitely sounds amazing @bookwormsmom and her credentials are far better that my daughter who is applying for ninth grade as well. Do you believe your daughter’s passion(s) shined throughout the process? Other than the comments from @RedSoxFan18 I wonder if Saint Ann’s maybe doesn’t have the endowment to support your financial aid needs? Only a big guess on my part as she seems great.
Saint Ann’s is the hardest NYC private school to get into, period. I agree with @Center that it’s quite political, and not so generous with FA. Certainly not a school to make any assumptions about admittance, regardless of your daughter’s very strong stats. Do NOT get discouraged about a rejection from there - if you lived in NYC you’d realize that getting in is more like winning the lottery and certainly not a reflection on your DD.
Boarding schools have a much more holistic admissions process in my experience, and also have more FA to distribute. You stand a better chance at the schools on your list, so don’t give up hope.
That said, I’m unclear as well about the boarding/day situation for you… to which are you applying?
My condolences. I received my daughter’s first rejection letter today, from Fay School. Her stats are similar to yours. But I already knew admission is hard for FA regardless student’s qualification. I am just going to let it sink deep. So I won’t be to much crushed in just one day of March 10th.
@laenen, I don’t know how hard it is generally. Just that daughter couldn’t as a 9th grade boarder, ORM, FA.
She has 97% SSAT, homeschooled, 4.0 GPA from 45+ completed college units some of which would be equivalent to 5 AP courses, exhibited on 2 national juried shows for artists and 5 scholastic gold keys pending national review.
@laenen. I counted them as MS credits (sounds strange, I know. She will have 60+ after this term) since she is 13yo and in 8th grade now. It’s the Fay school. At the time of application, we planned to (it still is seriously considered) to apply BS for 2017 as a repeating 9th grade entering at age 14.
Thanks for your input all. I was hoping this community would be encouraging and it was :). @Center I was looking for someone who knows St. Ann’s and your comment (“political”) made me feel better, so thank you. I read an article from a few years ago about Trinity (same admissions dynamic?) and it said overall their acceptance rate was about 8%, I think. But if you factored out alumni, siblings, and teacher’s children, the acceptance rate for the unconnected was 2-3%.
We think of her “hook” as writing, i.e., she thinks she wants to be a writer/animator. She’s a voracious reader, plus five writing awards from Scholastic over the last two years, sleep-away writing camp, a weekly after school writer’s workshop in 7th grade that required 4 hours round trip commuting, playwriting summer camp wherein she staged a reading of a play she wrote to a group of adult writers, she started a local “teen and me” book club at our local book store, plus 750 on the SAT critical reading and 650 on the writing. We included all that stuff in her apps, and for the BS all her essays seemed to be about her love of reading and writing. One of the interviewers somewhere said they liked that she was engaged in writing not just in school but also outside, so I do think it’s coming through as the thing to which she’s committed herself. @RedSoxFan18 She doesn’t want to board yet but might change her mind for sophomore or junior year. I agree that might sound odd to admissions people, but of course we won’t force her. All the schools she’s applying to have at least 25% day students; Milton and Concord are 50/50 and of course St. Ann’s is a day school. @MAandMEmom … Good luck to you and your daughter. I’m sure she’s amazing as well. St. Ann’s definitely doesn’t have the endowment of some of the others but they are giving FA to some students and I read the trend was toward partial rather than full, so I didn’t think and still hope in and of itself that isn’t the deciding factor.
Brooklyn seems like a really expensive place to relocate to for school if you need FA.
Your daughter’s passion for writing and her engagement in that as an EC is to be commended but its not really a “hook”.
Best of luck to you both, @bookwormsmom and @SculptorDad, as March 10th approaches. CC is a good place to vent as its important to help the kids manage rejection through this process, something most 13-14 year olds will be experiencing for the first time.
@GMC2918 Milton and Concord (50/50 day boarding), Andover and Choate (25% day) and of course St. Ann’s is day. I know it’s weird (in this environment) to not just apply as a boarding student, but it was not a thing where I grew up so the idea of it is alien to me and my husband and we all would have had to mentally prepare much earlier. We did our best to explain in our interviews … we want the best education for her (she’s an “only”), there’s nothing in our general vicinity that fits right, we have flexible work arrangements and can rent out our house if we temporarily relocate bc we live in a popular second home community, so she wants to be a day student for now. Most of the schools said day students do switch frequently, except Middlesex where they said day students have to stay day.
@bookwormsmom, I think @doschicos is right that your daughter’s writing, as well as mine’s art are not really hooks. They can become good EC, and perhaps even pseudo hook with proven high achievements as scholastic national gold medal. But not a hook like sports. Why they value sports more than writing and arts? Perhaps because sport is what they “need” rather than “want” for business/marketing purpose?
@SculptorDad Condolences to you too. Your DD sounds like a very talented, bright and exceedingly determined child. It’s amazing to me how selective this process is. I keep telling myself this is why we got into it: to stretch, be challenged, and to put our DD in an environment where everything doesn’t come easy all the time. Well, here we are. Not even to March 10th and she’s already learning life can be competitive and rough. Go us!!
It’s sometimes a bit of gamble and they don’t necessarily choose the most qualified students to build a class they want for the year. That thought makes it easier to accept the rejections.
I think that writing is not viewed as a hook, even with a high level or proficiency or multiple awards, because good (great) writing skills are fundamental to success at the BS schools on your list and, thus, are expected. One of the reasons for the essays and interviews is to assess your student’s communication skills and ability to express him/herself fluently and cogently. Their are many applicants in the pool who can do this with a very high level of creativity and skill and with the awards to prove it. Because it is not uncommon, it is not a hook. OTOH, a school like Choate, with its Arts Concentration Program, would enable your daughter to explore that talent among other students of like caliber if writing is something she wants to pursue.
Also, any amount of FA need will put your daughter’s application in the 30% pile. Most of these schools roughly maintain a 70/30 ratio of full-pay to financial-aid slots, so her application is chasing limited funds for fewer available seats. However, once in the FA pool, her chance of receiving partial FA is much better than receiving close-to or full FA.
Bookworms mom: wow love it. I think Milton may be an excellent fit for her! The New York schools are a bit of a joke. It’s all about money and connections and flexing power. I am sure your child will get in at a couple of the other schools. She sounds like a tremendous applicant. Writing is almost an antiquated endeavor these days. I see that as a particularly potent hook.
Why does our entire society value sports so much? I don’t get it. I’d rather read a good book or go see a show or movie or a museum any day.
My guess is BSs value athletes not only for creating winning sports teams but because colleges value them and recruit athletes. BSs value their matriculation stats.
